What to do if the RunPee app crashes or you encounter an error?

Monday night (August 5, 2024) was not a good night to use the RunPee app on Android. I updated the app in the Play Store and then, much to my horror, got an email from a fan telling me that the app was crashing every time I opened it.

I checked and… It worked on my phone.

Then I got another email and another.

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This is every developer’s nightmare, by the way. When something breaks for some people but not for the developer, it’s very hard to fix the problem. We start by guessing what might have caused the error and try to fix that, but we can’t verify the solution until someone else tests it. If that doesn’t work, we try to figure out how to reproduce the error on our device so we know when it’s fixed. It’s all very stressful and annoying.

It took a while, but I was able to reproduce the crash. The only problem was that the app only crashed in the Play Store, not when I built it locally and tested it on my device, so the testing time was about an hour.

Suffice it to say, I eventually fixed the problem. It was a code dependency or configuration issue. (This is very common.) I didn’t have time to change one thing after another to know exactly what the problem was. I had to try lots of changes each time and hope that one of them was the solution. (And hope that none of the other changes broke anything else.) That was the most important thing for me: fixing the problem. Knowing exactly what the problem was in the first place is the icing on the cake.

what do people say
via the RunPee app.

AmyGatten, 15.06.2023

Best app ever!

RunPee is the only app we use before and after going to the movies. Not only does RunPee tell you when it’s time to leave the theater, today’s kids ask if there’s anything on during/after the credits and RunPee lets parents know if a child might miss something!

RunPee provides information, reviews, cinema exit times and lengths. This is THE MOST ESSENTIAL APP for watching all kinds of movies!

We used it when my wife was pregnant and we’ve recommended it to every pregnant woman we know! How else can you enjoy a movie when you have to go out so often?!

View all reviews
Apple App Store | Google Play Store

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What to do in case of an accident?

I’m grateful to the fans who took the time to email me and let me know the app wasn’t working. I received a few dozen emails and replied to all of them. Then I followed up when the fix was available. That’s why I’m writing this post: so you know what to do if the app crashes or you spot a bug.

If the app crashes, especially when starting, you cannot contact me directly through the app. In this case, the best way to reach me is by email: (email protected). You can also reach me via Discord. Whichever method you choose, I will need to know if you have an iOS or Android phone and preferably which version of the RunPee app you have. You should be able to long press the app icon and go to App information screen to get the version.

It’s up to you, not me

Another common problem could be a server issue. In this case, you’ll see an animated GIF of John Travolta (from Pulp Fiction) looking lost. This either means your phone isn’t connected to the internet or there’s a problem with the RunPee server. I’d ask you to assume it’s the former, as movie theaters are notorious for having poor cell reception.

Previously, the host I used for the RunPee API ran on the same server as the blog. This was a terrible idea because if something happened, like an article about RunPee on CNN.com, then the traffic to the blog would overwhelm the server and both the blog and API would be affected. Now they are on completely separate machines (DigitalOcean). I check the server utilization every day and it runs pretty consistently between 2% and 6% of capacity. This means that RunPee could handle a traffic spike of about 16x and still cope. In fact, it can handle much more than that for a short spike as the server temporarily expands to accommodate the traffic.

There is a small chance that it is a bug in the server-side code, but again, that is unlikely. Not because I write great PHP code, but because each version of the RunPee app has its own version of the server-side code, which does not change.

Errors or usability problems in the app

Overall, I’m pretty happy with the stability of the RunPee app code. I’ve fixed all known bugs, but there are still a few user-requested usability/feature changes that I’ll make over time. If you spot something that doesn’t work, or if you think of something that could work better, please let me know, either via email ((email protected)) or there are numerous places in the RunPee app where you can send a message – for example, at the end of each Peetime summary.

Typos and errors in the Peetime data

That’s what 90% of user feedback is about. We do our best, but sometimes there are typos and errors in the peetimes. For example, for Deadpool and Wolverine I used the name Cassandra in a place where I would have Laura. As I said, we do our best, but sometimes our brains mess things up and we don’t realize it. Luckily, it’s so easy for users to reach me through the Peetime Synopis screen that I get fans who take a moment to send me the corrections.

The other common feedback we get is about our choice of peetime. Honestly, I would have expected this to happen a lot more often, but we rarely get much backlash for our choice of peetimes. If you think we chose a bad peetime, by all means let us know. In most cases, we would agree that it’s not a great peetime, but it’s the best we could do for that section of film. We try to have the first peetime before the 30th minute of a film, but that can be challenging because obviously a lot of characters are introduced early in a film and those are always bad choices for peetimes. After that, we try to have a peetime within the next 30 minutes of the film until the end. This is usually not too hard, but it depends on the film.

Remember, peetimes are not necessarily the boring parts of a movie. Rather, they are scenes in a movie that can easily be summarized briefly without losing the essential meaning. A peetime with important explanations or plot developments is not ideal, but if we can summarize that information, it is a candidate for a peetime. Conversely, a dramatic or emotional scene is never a good peetime.

What do we do now?

The RunPee app is in great shape right now. Thanks to our fans, we get enough donations to sustain our efforts and pay a few bills. My next big feature addition to the app will be to add options for other languages ​​and eventually movies restricted to certain countries. I’d love to have that in the app by the end of the year, but honestly, this is probably the biggest addition to the app I’ve ever had, so I’m not going to put a deadline on myself. It will be available when it’s tested and ready for the public.

As always, I love to hear feedback from our fans on how we can improve the app for you. You can leave a comment below or email me if there is anything you would like to discuss. ((email protected))